Through the Looking Glass : Can Classroom Observation and Coaching Improve Teacher Performance in Brazil?

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Abstract

This study conducted a randomized
evaluation of a program in the Brazilian state of Ceara. The
program was designed to improve teachers’ effectiveness by
increasing their professional interaction and sharing of
classroom practice. In 175 of 350 secondary schools,
teachers were provided with benchmarked feedback from
classroom observations and access to expert coaching.
Schools’ uptake of the coaching program was high (85
percent). Over a single school year, the program increased
teachers’ time on instruction and student engagement and
produced statistically significant gains in student learning
on the Ceara state assessment and the national secondary
school exit exam. Controlling for individual students’
prior-year learning outcomes, schools exposed to the program
had 0.05-0.09 standard deviation higher performance on the
state test and 0.04-0.06 standard deviation higher scores on
the national test. Implementation fidelity strongly boosted
program impacts. In the 49 schools where the pedagogical
coordinators achieved the highest certification at the end
of the program, student scores were 0.13-0.23 standard
deviation higher on the state test and 0.13-0.17 standard
deviation higher on the national test. Coaching delivered by
Skype kept the costs of the program low, $2.40 per student,
and produced cost-effective impacts on learning in
comparison with other rigorously evaluated teacher training
interventions. The combination of classroom observation
feedback and expert coaching appears to be a promising
strategy for whole-school efforts to raise teacher effectiveness.